The disclosed embodiments relate generally to a print job development technique and, more particularly, to an approach for automatically compiling either a group of print job segments (to form a multi-part print job) or a group of print jobs (to form a composite print job).
Publishing applications can be advantageously used to compile and produce large documents. The large documents may be constructed from small documents or document fragments, thus allowing several persons to work simultaneously. Various components of a large document can be encoded in a page description language (such as Xerox's Interpress® or Adobe's PostScript®) and stored for processing. Methods of assembling these components (in the form of Interpress® files) are taught in chapter 8 of Interpress the Source Book by Steven J. Harrington and Robert R. Buckley (published by Simon & Schuster, Inc. in 1988). This method of assembly presumes, of course, the manual collection of all documents or document fragments in one convenient location. Such collection, however, can be challenging in a large network printing system having many remote client sources communicating with a complex printing system by way of many gateways.
Various printing systems capable of processing complex jobs are known. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 7,092,963 B2 to Ryan et al., the pertinent portions of which are incorporated herein by reference, discloses a print production and finishing system for electronic management and control of a wide range of finishing processes characterized by input from multiple production operations and equipment that, depending upon the job, might be variably applied to work pieces that themselves are highly variable between different jobs. As with the publishing applications described above, the '963 patent does not appear to contemplate an approach for compiling multiple job parts from various client sources communicating with a printing system by way of multiple gateways.
Indeed, compiling multi-part jobs can be problematic in network document processing systems having various client sources communicating with a printing system by way of multiple gateways and/or multiple submission mechanisms since one job segment (associated with one job submission mechanism) might pass through a first gateway at a first time without the system knowing that another related job segment (possibly associated with another job submission mechanism) is passing through a second gateway at a second time. Because the relationship of the job segments or parts is not recognized across the multiple gateways, collection of all related job segments downstream of the gateways for the kind of assembly or compilation alluded to above can be highly problematic.
In accordance with one aspect of the disclosed embodiments there is disclosed a system for compiling a multi-part print job having two or more print job segments for processing with an electronic document processing system. The system includes: (A) a memory; (B) a memory manager communicating with said memory; (C) a first print system gateway, communicating with said memory manager, at which a first print job segment is received, said first print system gateway being used to determine that the first print job segment is part of the multi-part print job, wherein, responsive to determining that the first print job segment is part of the multi-part print job, said memory manager causes the first print job segment to be stored in said memory until a selected condition is met; (D) a second print system gateway, communicating with said memory manager, at which a second print job segment is received, said second print system gateway being used to determine that the second print job segment is part of the multi-part print job, wherein, responsive to said determining that the second print job segment is part of the multi-part print job, said memory manager causes the second print job segment to be stored in said memory until the selected condition is met; and (E) wherein when the selected condition is met, said memory manager causes both the first and second print job segments to be released from said memory for processing as the multi-part print job with the electronic document processing system.
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosed embodiments there is disclosed a system for compiling a composite print job having two or more jobs for processing with an electronic document processing system. The system includes: (A) a memory; (B) a memory manager communicating with said memory; (C) a first print system gateway, communicating with said memory manager, at which a first job is received, said first print system gateway being used to determine that the first job is part of the composite print job, wherein, responsive to determining that the first job is part of the composite print job, said memory manager causes the first job to be stored in said memory until a selected condition is met; (D) a second print system gateway, communicating with said memory manager, at which a second job is received, said second print system gateway being used to determine that the second job is part of the composite print job, wherein, responsive to said determining that the second job is part of the composite job, said memory manager causes the second job to be stored in said memory until the selected condition is met; and (E) wherein when the selected condition is met, said memory manager causes both the first and second jobs to be released from said memory for processing as the composite job with the electronic document processing system.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the disclosed embodiments there is disclosed a method for compiling a multi-part print job having two or more print job segments for processing with an electronic document processing system. The method includes: (A) receiving a first print job segment at a first print system gateway; (B) determining, with the first print system gateway, that the first print job segment is part of the multi-part print job; (C) responsive to said (B), storing the first print job segment in memory; (D) receiving a second print job segment at a second print system gateway; (E) determining, with the second print system gateway, that the second print job segment is part of the multi-part print job; (F) responsive to said (E), storing the second print job segment in memory; wherein the first print job segment is associated with the second print job segment; and (G) when a selected condition is met, releasing both the first and second print job segments for processing as the multi-part print job with the electronic document processing system.
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosed embodiments there is disclosed a method for compiling a composite print job having two or more jobs for processing with an electronic document processing system. The method includes: (A) receiving a first job at a first print system gateway; (B) determining, with the first print system gateway, that the first job is part of the composite print job; (C) responsive to said (B), storing the first job in memory; (D) receiving a second job at a second print system gateway; (E) determining, with the second print system gateway, that the second job is part of the composite print job; (F) responsive to said (E), storing the second job in memory; wherein the first job is associated with the second job; and (G) when a selected condition is met, releasing both the first and second jobs for processing as the composite print job with the electronic document processing system.